The Way I Loved You
by Mrs. Elizabeth Gibbs
Summary: "I miss screamin' and fightin' and kissin' in the rain, it's two am and I'm cursin' your name. I'm so in love that I acted insane, and that's the way I loved you." Song-fic with song by Taylor Swift. Jibbs! T to be safe.


A/N: I was listening to this song on the way to school, and it just hit me that this was the perfect song to use for Jibbs. This song is brilliant, and one of my favorites. I was originally going to put it in 'Nocturne', a collection of essentially Jibbs songs, although there are a few others mixed in. But anyway, I won't be posting 'Nocturne' for some time, and I wanted to put this out there. For those of you following my others stories, I'm crossing my fingers that an update on 'Choices, Chances, and Fairytale Endings' will be up Sunday, the 19th. Don't hold me to it, but that's my first free day to write, save Friday night. Anyway, I'll let you get onto the song-fic now. Pretty please tell me what you thought in a review!

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS; we all know who owns it, and the lyrics to the song are owned by Taylor Swift!

* * *

_He is sensible and so incredible,__  
And all my single friends are jealous.__  
He says everything I need to hear, and it's like  
I couldn't ask for anything better._

Jenny Shepard smiled at the man currently walking up to her front door. This was the fifth time he'd asked her out, and she was pleased with the attention. It had been a long since she had been out with a man, and this particular was definitely someone she enjoyed spending time with.

All of her single friends envied her; he was handsome, and well-known. His reputation was one people strived for, and the people he worked with loved him. He was sensible, smart, funny, overall incredible. He knew exactly what to say to make her feel good about herself. He was the perfect gentleman, and his affection for her was evident.

She couldn't ask for anything better.

_He opens up my door and I get into his car  
And he says, 'You look beautiful tonight'.  
And I feel perfectly fine._

"Hello Jenny." Todd Gefland said, offering her his arm after he'd pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.

"Hi Todd." she replied, slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow, fingers resting against his crisp black jacket. Walking to his car, they chatted quietly about how work was, how their weeks had been. Upon reaching the silver two-door car, he walked her to her side, opening her door for her and helping her into the seat. She sighed quietly as she watched his walk around the front, straightening the hem of her navy blue cocktail dress over her knees.

He opened the driver's side door, sliding into the leather seat. Turning to her, he fixed a loose curl, tucking it behind her ear.

"You look beautiful tonight." he said, touching her cheek gently with his fingertips. Jenny blushed slightly, a pink hue crossing the bridge of her nose. It felt nice to be complimented.

She felt fine.

_But I miss screamin' and fightin' and kissin' in the rain,  
It's two am and I'm cursin' your name,  
I'm so in love that you acted insane,  
And that's the way I loved you._

But compared to her other notable romance, it was tame.

There were times she missed the screaming fights, the all-out brawls that led to passionate encounters in the rain. There were moments she wanted that all back; moments she wanted to be staring into deep blue eyes instead of warm brown. There were moments she missed cursing that one man that knew how to get under her skin at two in the morning, moments she missed knowing that come breakfast, they'd be happy again, and the petty fight between them would be forgotten.

_Breakin' down and comin' undone,  
It's a roller coaster kinda rush,  
And I never knew I could feel that much,  
And that's the way I loved you._

She remembered breaking down completely one night, thinking he'd been hurt when he hadn't come home on time from a stakeout. She'd completely lost it, crying hysterically, thinking she'd never see him again. Then, he'd come home, two hours later. The joy she'd seen had overwhelmed her, but was soon followed the anger and hurt that he hadn't called. She'd been riding an emotional roller coaster, feelings nearly sweeping her off of her feet. Until that point, she hadn't known she'd been able to feel as much for one man as she had for him. For one Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

And that was how she loved him.

_He respects my space and never makes me wait,  
And he calls exactly when he says he will.  
He's close to my mother, talks business with my father,  
He's charming and endearing and I'm comfortable._

Todd was nothing like Jethro.

He respected her personal space, keeping his distance even when she wanted him to be close. He never kept her waiting; he arrived on time where and when he was supposed to; he remembered important dates and appointments, and he checked in when he was going to be late.

He was the kind of man that would have gotten along famously with her parents. He would have loved her mother; they probably could have talked for hours about the smallest things, she just knew. And he was a respectable man, the kind her father had wanted her to date. The Colonel would have liked the fact that his only daughter was seeing a famous, well-liked surgeon. He would have said she was doing the family name justice.

Todd was charming, his smile endearing.

Jenny was comfortable.

_But I miss screamin' and fightin' and kissin' in the rain,  
It's two am and I'm cursin' your name.  
I'm so in love that you acted insane,  
And that's the way I loved you._

But Jenny didn't want comfortable. Not anymore.

She missed the fights, the yelling, the make-ups under a tree in the middle of a rainstorm. She missed the hard blue eyes melting to liquid when she said just the right thing.

She'd been so in love she hadn't been thinking straight that fateful moment she'd decided she had to leave. She'd been scared, immature; she hadn't known if he returned her feelings.

He didn't voice his feelings; only now did she realize his actions had spoken so much louder than his words ever would.

And that was how she loved him.

_Breakin' down and comin' undone  
It's a roller coaster kinda rush  
And I never knew I could feel that much,  
And that's the way I loved you._

Sitting in her living room, all alone with a glass of wine, she stared into the roaring flames in the fireplace. Todd was in a conference in New York for the weekend, and she was all alone. The quiet was peaceful; she enjoyed the time to herself after a long, stressful week at the agency.

Setting the goblet on the coffee table, she wiped away a tear that rolled down her cheek.

This week, she'd seen Jethro and that woman from Army CID, Hollis Mann. They'd been in the same restaurant as Jenny and Todd had been.

Jenny didn't know Jethro even knew what a restaurant looked like.

The interaction between them had been brief; a flashed smile, a quick hello, small talk conversation, and then Jenny and Todd had left. Sneaking a quick look back though, had been a bad idea. Jethro had settled his hand on the small of the blonde woman's back, the gesture intimate and familiar to Jenny. On occasion, he would do it to her as well; he'd situate his hand on her lower back, warmth spreading from his calloused digits.

She missed that. She missed everything.

She missed Jethro.

_He can't see the smile I'm fakin'  
And my heart's not breakin'_  
'_Cause I'm not feeling anything at all._

Jenny watched Todd out of the corner of her eye as she scanned the wall of books in the bookstore, watching him browse the selections. Things, for her at least, had been tense the past few weeks. Things just weren't matching up for her, and it felt like everything about the relationship was fake now. She'd stopped feeling anything a long time ago.

But if she gave everything up, would she have anything in her life to remain in control of? Would she have someone to go to, to listen to her?

She wanted things back to the way they had been with Jethro; recently, everything had just been fights between them- and this time there hadn't been any make-ups in the rain.

She just wanted her life to be simple. But with them, simple wasn't even a word in their vocabulary.

_And you were wild and crazy,  
Just so frustrating, intoxicating, complicated,  
Got away by come mistake and now,_

She remembered the way he'd been in Paris. The wild side she'd never seen before. The side that took her skinny-dipping in the Seine, the side that danced in French clubs until two in the morning. The side she'd fallen in love with.

He was so frustrating, so infuriating, the way he knew exactly what buttons to push.

He was intoxicating, the way his blue eyes gleamed and the way he always managed to smell like sawdust, even at work.

He was complicated; he had a difficult past and he was hard to read.

Some people called him a bastard.

She simply called him Jethro.

_I miss screamin' and fightin' and kissin' in the rain,  
It's two am and I'm cursin' your name.  
I'm so in love that I acted insane,  
And that's the way I loved you._

She missed everything about him. And she needed a change, in everything. So she was taking charge.

Walking down the familiar basement steps, she watched his form stiffen slightly as her heels clicked on the wooden basement steps. Then, his shoulders relaxed, and he continued to move the plane horizontally across the hull of his boat.

"Something I can help you with, Director?" he asked, a sarcastic bite on the end of her name.

"First, you can call me Jen, we aren't at work. And second, you could listen to me for once in your entire life." Jenny answered, leaning back against the workbench, her elbows resting on the countertop.

"Jen, what do you want?" Jethro asked, and Jenny couldn't help but notice how tired he sounded.

"A second chance." she said quietly, biting her lip as she kept her gaze trained on the ground, refusing to meet his gaze that she could feel burning into her.

Then, he was in front of her, placing one of his hands gently under her head, tilting her chin up so that she was forced to meet his eyes.

"What changed?"

_Breakin' down and comin' undone,  
It's a roller coaster kinda rush,  
And I never knew I could feel that much,  
And that's the way I loved you._

"Nothing changed." Jenny said honestly, shrugging softly. "I just realized that I was trying to bury things that just couldn't be buried."

"What about Todd?" Jethro asked, his tone harsher than he'd intended. "You should be with him Jen; he's the kind of guy you should be with."

"Jethro, Todd's the kind of guy everyone else wanted me to be with. For once in my life, I want to be with who _I_ want to be with. And that's you, Jethro." Jenny answered, her answer honest, the emotion behind it sparkling in her green eyes.

Her heart ached as she tried to read his eyes, but the unshed tears blurred her vision. Taking a shuddering breath, she blinked a few times, clearing the tears and waiting for his answer.

He was still studying her, but one of his hands moved to her waist, the other cupping her cheek, his thumb brushing across her cheek bone. His coarse skin made her shiver, and she let out a sigh of a breath. Her breath tickled his chin, and she watched his skin harden slightly.

Then, he was kissing her.

And she was in heaven.

_And that's the way I loved you,  
Never knew I could feel that much,  
And that's the way I loved you._

Jenny watched Jethro cradle the bundle in his arms, smiling.

Two years ago, she never would have pictured this was how her life would turn out. At this moment, she was watching her husband cradle their newborn son for the first time. Sure, that might have happened, but she never would have thought her husband would be the same man that she'd left. And now, she couldn't be happier.

Todd had stopped in earlier when he'd heard she was in. He was nice as he always was when they saw each other, and she was in return. Her husband, however, was a different story. He'd escaped to the nursery so that the nurse could let him bring their son back to the room.

Jenny had asked Todd about his wife, and his face had lit up like it always did when he spoke of her. He'd said Hollis was great; she'd been looking into retirement, and they were thinking of moving to Hawaii. She was happy for them, and secretly thrilled that they were thinking of moving to the other side of the country. It could only be good news.

Looking up when she heard her name, she smiled at her husband.

"You wanna hold him?" he asked, coming to her side of the bed.

"Of course I do." Jenny answered softly, taking the baby gently from him, snuggling him to her chest. "Well Jasper Gibbs, you are one lucky baby. You have a daddy that loves you very much. And I'll let you in on a secret. I love him too." she said softly, whispering the last words into her husband's ear. He cradled her closer, pressing a gently kiss to her cheek.

"Well I have a secret too. I love her too." Jethro said just as softly, smiling at Jenny.

And that's the way they loved each other.


End file.
